Item 04: John Duncan McRae diary, 6 May-18 September 1917 - Page 10

[Page 10]

some Spearmint & cigarettes, much to their mutual gratification.

The women here, especially those of the poorer classes, have to work very hard. Little children are always to be seen on the thoroughfares with great baskets of eatables which I would scarcely care to carry. This morning I passed an old women & a tiny girl each laden with a great load of sticks which seemed just about as much as they could bear, and with these they had trudged at least a couple of miles. It seemed cruel that their lives from the cradle to the grave, so to speak, should be so full of suffering, but such seems to be the normal lot for them & they take it quite as a matter of course.

In one corner of our camp a number of girls & women from Etaples have a row of stalls at which they sell post-cards, chocolate etc. These people